Originally Posted by
farwest101
Did you price out ANA? 38K r/t Coach per person = 76K for 2. Should be same fees as United quotes. And that way you can get rid of your MRs.
Your prior post said 43K for RT tickets (which I wouldn't have quite enough for) so I didn't look into it. Oops.
Originally Posted by
boilerhoops10
Are you including a stopover? Originally that was our plan but that jacked up the fees to the neighborhood you are quoting. When I took out the stopover it was only a few dollars/ticket for fees.
I'd try for another agent and press them on the fees stating there should be no fuel surcharges.
No stopover, maybe she gave me bad info. I figured I should assume the worst case if I'm going to transfer and potentially have my points stuck there. Also, she couldn't find award availability on the flights I wanted so I would have had to settle on some times which were not preferable (though still the same day as United's availability)
Anyway, last weekend I ended up booking on United. I noticed one award flight disappeared and I started to worry that I had to jump on something. I got the itinerary I wanted and also thought that perhaps it's more prudent to save my MRs for a good transfer bonus instead of trying to burn through them to conserve United miles.
Thanks everyone! While perhaps not the most optimal in the end, I'm happy getting my 2.67 cents per mile.
All my award booking up until now has been much simpler (i.e., lot of Southwest flights with CP), so this was eye opening that I have a lot learn about getting the best value for larger redemptions. Obviously many of you have learned this through years of experience... Any tips on where I should start reading to better understand the options of partner redemptions, transfers, etc?